


concerning truth or dare and other games for children

by ingenious_spark



Series: Avengers Prompt Bingo 2012 [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Hallucinations, Hospitals, M/M, SHIELD Husbands, Truth or Dare, Two Truths and A Lie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-11
Updated: 2012-10-11
Packaged: 2017-11-16 03:10:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ingenious_spark/pseuds/ingenious_spark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil's in the hospital and it's Steve's turn to watch the man. There's a game and some revelations in store for Steve. Meanwhile, Phil is just really interested in the fish swimming around on his ceiling.</p>
            </blockquote>





	concerning truth or dare and other games for children

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Morphine is fuckin' trippy stuff guys. I have Phil speaking from personal experience - I actually hallucinated that my ceiling in the hospital was made of water and there were fish swimming around up there after my surgery. It also made me violently ill.
> 
> This is a fill for my Avengers Kink Bingo card, for the square "Truth or Dare".

Hospitals are quiet in a very peculiar way, Steve mused. They’re hushed but thoroughly busy. Feet move past the door in hurried but not rushed movements. The room they are in is silent, still. Its only other occupant is asleep, though the machines he is hooked up to can be loud in the stillness.

Steve is drawing. The bed’s occupant has woken a couple times, but not when Steve has been taking his shift at his bedside. Steve draws, and he thinks. He watches people. So many people think he’s so completely lost in this time - maybe he is, but he’s working his way through it. One thing he’s good at, though, is watching people, reading the tiny cues they give off. He’s maybe not so stellar at interpreting them, especially when it comes to a certain Tony Stark, but he’s genuinely working one that. He and Tony have come to a wary truce in situations that don’t require immediate action as well. (To be perfectly honest, Steve has a hard time disassociating Tony from Howard, which he knows the other man hates. He’s working on it, like he said.)

A slightly incoherent mumble breaks through his thoughts.

“Wow, they have me on goo’ dru’s.” Steve looks up, blue eyes meeting blue-grey eyes, hazy from sleep and pain and medicine. “There’s no way Captain ‘Merica’s sitting by my be’side.” The bedridden man looks kinda loopy around the edges, but there’s a bright, boyish sparkle in his eyes.

“Agent Coulson. Good to see you up.” Steve smiles quietly. The other man scans the room and frowns a little, looking a bit lost.

“‘S my ‘usband?” He mumbles, looking mildly distressed. That is another thing that has come as a complete surprise, that gay relationships are, if not liked, at least tolerated out in the open now. It is still difficult, he still wants to push people into closets to hide them when he sees same-sex couples kissing in the open. He keeps looking around for people he can see will dash off to a telephone and phone the police. He still isn’t sure how he feels about the whole marriage issue. But this soul-searching was for another day.

“Natasha dragged Clint off to eat and get some sleep.” Steve informs the other man, and he relaxes back against his pillows. Coulson grins, slightly lopsided, at him. “What is it?” he asks, feeling slightly bemused. Coulson is a fan, he knows, and that always makes him feel awkward. Fame is strange to him, he still can’t quite wrap his brain around the fact that he isn’t really that skinny asthmatic kid from Brooklyn anymore. Coulson frowns a little bit.

“Was gonna say somthin’. Don’t remember.” He says, then sighs shallowly. “‘M bored. Stark did somethin’ to the TV, won’t give me my shows.” He stares with such abject melancholy at the television set that Steve has to muffle a laugh. He looks around for a pack of cards, but doesn’t find any. 

“How about a game?” Stave asks, then casts his mind around for one - “Truth or dare?” He asks hesitantly, remembering that it seems to be a mildly juvenile game. Phil chuckles, wincing a little.

“It’d be truth or truth ‘less you want to do dares for eating horrible hospital food. Besides, if we’re gonna be fifteen year old girls, I like two truths and a lie better.” Steve frowns a little.

“I don’t think I know that one.” He admits. Phil smiles.

“I’ll go first. Say three things, one lie two truths. Other guy has to guess the lie.” Phil becomes briefly entranced by the ceiling. “There’s fishes swimming on the ceiling right now,” he starts, holding up one finger. “Captain ‘Merica is my childhood hero because of my father.” Finger number two, “I only like you ‘cause you’re famous.” Finger three. Steve stifles a smile.

“I’m going to go with number three, Coulson.” He replies. Phil smiles loopily. 

“Yeah, ‘cause the fish’re really pretty.” He agrees. He frowns slightly. “‘M on morphine, aren’t I? Fishies come with morphine.” Steve doesn’t quite manage to cover his snort of laughter with a cough, and Phil’s attention is back on him. “Dad knew you, y’know. Or. Met you? Dunno. You listened to him. He thought that was awesome. Nobody listened to him, just a Private then. But you listened, and you used his ideas. Made him-” here Phil yawns, “made him believe in himself.” His words trail off into a murmur, then he is asleep again. Steve wipes the back of his hand against suddenly-stinging eyes. He’s forgotten that - the fresh-faced Private Matthew Coulson with his quiet enthusiasm and downtrodden expression. It had been that expression that made him listen to the man - bright blue eyes certain of what he was saying, but equally certain no one would pay any attention to him.

“Thank you, Phillip Coulson.” He murmurs into the strange quiet of the hospital room.


End file.
